News (Noticias) Tagged ‘university of texas’

hree programs at institutions of higher education— in California, Arizona, and Texas—have been selected as “Examples of Excelencia” (examples of excellence) in a national initiative to identify and honor programs and departments boosting Latino college enrollment, performance and graduation.

The winning programs will be announced tonight in Houston by Excelencia in Education, the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that administers the initiative and works to accelerate higher educational success for Latino students. Sallie Mae is a signature sponsor of this year’s Examples of Excelencia program.

The 2008 Examples of Excelencia are:

• The Bilingual Nursing Fellows Program at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix, Ariz.;
• The Bachelor of Architecture Program at Woodbury University in Burbank, Calif.; and
• The Intellectual Entrepreneurship Pre-Graduate School Internship Program in the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin, Texas.

“These programs are true examples of excellence and will provide a model for others to follow,” said Sarita Brown, president and founder of Excelencia in Education. “They equip students with the skills they need to succeed in an increasingly demanding workplace and offer institutions and policymakers powerful ideas and strategies to tap this generation of Latino college-going students.”

Hispanic Americans are still less likely to attend college than their white or black counterparts. U.S. Department of Education statistics show that Hispanics are one-third as likely as whites and about half as likely as blacks to earn a bachelor’s degree.

A new study from Sallie Mae and Gallup shows that Hispanic college students and parents believe in the value of a higher education. For example, 86 percent of Hispanic students strongly believe that college is an investment in their future, and 54 percent of parents strongly agreed with the same statement. However, many Hispanic families are not adequately planning for college prior to the end of high school. More than two-thirds of Hispanic parents did not receive any financial aid while their child was in K-12 and more than half (56 percent) of the young adults who were not attending college indicated that they had not received any financial aid information in K-12, according to a report from the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute and The Sallie Mae Fund.

Examples of Excelencia is one part of the overall effort by Excelencia in Education and other groups to support and engage campus leaders and policymakers in accelerating higher educational success of the U.S. diverse Latino populations and thus grow this country’s human capital.

“These programs have worked diligently to create strategies to improve higher educational achievement for Latino students,” said Henry Cisneros, executive chairman of CityView and an Excelencia honorary board member. “It is particularly important to identify and expand such programs as the Latino proportion of the U.S. population grows. Today’s Latino college students will be America’s future workforce and leadership.”

At the associate level, the Bilingual Nursing Fellows Program (BNFP) at South Mountain Community College recognized the nationwide need for bilingual nurses and developed an innovative curriculum and system of support services to guide students through the nursing program with the ability to practice their profession in English and Spanish. BNFP uses a cohort model for its classes, closely monitors student progress, and coaches students in areas that need improvement. Latinos comprise 97 percent of the participating students and 90 percent of graduates work in hospitals whose patients are majority Latino.

At the baccalaureate level, Bachelor of Architecture Program at Woodbury University provides a global academic experience for its students, more than 40 percent of whom are Latino. By integrating international study programs in Europe, Asia and Latin America, one of the program’s main focuses is embracing the cultural and academic diversity of its students. First-year retention rates for Latinos in the program surpass the university average by almost 5 percent, and 90 percent of Latino students graduate within five years.

The Intellectual Entrepreneurship Pre-Graduate School Internship Program at The University of Texas at Austin offers undergraduate students a unique internship experience that encourages graduate study and career development that complement their personal passions and commitments to community. The program aims to increase diversity in graduate education by bringing underrepresented minorities and first-generation college students into the graduate school pipeline. Since 2003, the program has seen a dramatic increase in interns. Latino students make up the largest group of interns in the program, more than half of whom subsequently enroll in graduate school.

“Sallie Mae congratulates these outstanding institutions for their leadership in developing innovative programs that engage the talents of this country’s fastest-growing population group,” said Maria Frias, senior vice president of Sallie Mae’s south region. “Through sponsorship of this Excelencia in Education initiative and other programs, Sallie Mae is committed to ensuring Latino students can achieve their dreams of a higher education.”

Sallie Mae’s philanthropic arm, The Sallie Mae Fund, sponsors the “First in My Family Scholarship Program” in partnership with the Hispanic College Fund. Last school year, through scholarships ranging from $500 to $5,000, the program helped more than 150 Hispanic-American students—the first in their families to attend college—continue their education.

This fall, Excelencia in Education will release the 2008 edition of What Works for Latino Students: Examples of Excelencia Compendium. The publication will describe in detail how the 2008 recognized programs achieve positive results and will suggest ways their strategies may be adapted for use in other communities. For more information, please visit, www.EdExcelencia.org.

SLM Corporation (NYSE:SLM), commonly known as Sallie Mae, is the nation’s leading provider of saving- and paying-for-college programs. The company manages nearly $172 billion in education loans and serves 10 million student and parent customers. Through its Upromise affiliates, the company also manages more than $19 billion in 529 college-savings plans, and is a major, private source of college funding contributions in America with 9 million members and $450 million in member rewards. Sallie Mae and its subsidiaries offer debt management services as well as business and technical products to a range of business clients, including higher education institutions, student loan guarantors and state and federal agencies. More information is available at www.salliemae.com. SLM Corporation and its subsidiaries are not sponsored by or agencies of the United States of America.

Excelencia in Education aims to accelerate higher education success for Latino students by providing data-driven analysis of the educational status of Latino students, and by promoting education policies and institutional practices that support their academic achievement. A 501(c)(3) organization, Excelencia links policy, practice and research to inform and compel a growing network of results-oriented educators, community-based professionals and policymakers to address the U.S. economy’s need for a highly educated workforce.

Sallie Mae
Patricia Nash Christel, +1-703-984-5382
patricia.christel@salliemae.com

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The National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA) is pleased to announce the addition of Dr. Larry Edward Penley, president of Colorado State University to the 2008 National Board of Directors. NSHMBA named Dr. Penley to the board as a result of a change in the board structure to diversify the background and expertise of the board. President Penley serves on numerous boards, both economic and higher education related and his expertise with public research institutions aligns well with the goals of NSHMBA. Before joining Colorado State University, Penley served for many years as a professor of management and dean of the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. Dr. Larry Edward Penley became the 13th president of Colorado State University and Chancellor of the CSU System on August 1, 2003.

Dr. Penley’s lifelong commitment to higher education took root at Wake Forest University, where he earned a Bachelor’s in Psychology and a Master’s in Communication and his doctorate in management at the University of Georgia. Following graduate school, he joined the faculty of the University of Texas at San Antonio. Reflecting his strong commitment to international education and understanding, he also has taught at the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey in Mexico and the Universidad de Carabobo in Venezuela.

“Dr. Penley is an excellent addition to our board and will serve the entire NSHMBA organization well. By including different areas of expertise to our board structure, we continue to lift our organization to higher levels and to further our impact on our nation,” stated Lourdes Hassler, NSHMBA CEO.

Under the new NSHMBA Board structure, potential board members will undergo selection through a nomination process. The NSHMBA Nominations Committee will review candidates and submit for approval by the national board and chapter presidents. This new process will provide NSHMBA the opportunity to enhance the expertise and leadership of the board with like-minded national leaders from diverse backgrounds.

When asked about the new board structure, Hassler stated, “NSHMBA continues to benefit immeasurably from the commitment and expertise of our board and this enhancement.”

About NSHMBA
The National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA) was created in 1988 as a 501(C)(3) non-profit organization. Widely known as the “Premier Hispanic Organization,” NSHMBA serves 32 chapters and 7,000 members in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. It exists to foster Hispanic leadership through graduate management education and professional development. NSHMBA works to prepare Hispanics for leadership positions throughout the U.S. so that they can provide the cultural awareness and sensitivity vital in the management of the nation’s diverse workforce. “

Two UTSA students, Raul Montelongo and Alejandra Osejo, finished the spring semester with a trip to Washington, D.C., for the Vanguardia Latina 2008 youth leadership conference. The conference fosters the study of the social and political climates of Latin cultures in the United States and abroad.”*

María Guadalupe isn’t alone. In a sign that powerful drug cartels are extending their reach further into Mexican society, an increasing number of women are becoming involved in Mexico’s drug trade, even as violence grows, authorities say.

“The numbers continue to grow, in spite of the violence we’re witnessing,” said Howard Campbell, an anthropologist at the University of Texas at El Paso whose study on women in drug cartels was published in the winter edition of Anthropological Quarterly.”*

The steel fence that the U.S. government wants to build along the Mexican border would do more than slice through the University of Texas’ Brownsville campus and cut off the golf course from the rest of the school.

School officials say it would make a mockery of the very mission of the university: promoting close ties between the U.S. and Mexico.”*

Dr. Octavio N. Martinez Jr., a professor and clinical psychiatrist with experience in finance and banking, has been appointed executive director of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health at The University of Texas at Austin.

Martinez was selected following a national search for a successor to Dr. King Davis, who resigned as executive director in May to return to teaching full time in the university’s School of Social Work. Martinez will take office on Aug. 11 as the fifth executive director and the first Hispanic to lead the foundation since it was created in 1940. Martinez also will hold an academic appointment in the School of Social Work.”*

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) will honor San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce President and CEO A.J. Rodriguez as its 2008 Alumnus of the Year.

Rodriguez will be honored at the ninth annual UTSA Alumni Gala on Aug. 16 at the Westin La Cantera Resort Hotel. “*

Event: The University of Texas at Austin and ANUIES, a Mexican higher education organization, will host a binational conference June 26-27, featuring the Mexican Secretary of Education Josefina Vázquez Mota and David Dunn, chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Education. This is the first time ANUIES has held the conference, the largest gathering of Mexican university presidents outside of the country, in the United States.

When: Steven Leslie, university provost, and Rafael López Castañares, ANUIES executive secretary general, will welcome the cross-border educators at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 26, at the Blanton Museum of Art. The conference resumes at 9 a.m. Friday, June 27, at the Four Seasons Hotel.

Where: The Blanton Museum of Art and the Four Seasons Hotel, 98 San Jacinto Blvd. Although the event is open to the media, the conference is not open to the public.

Background: ANUIES (Asociación Nacional de Universidades e Instituciones de Educación Superior) is a nonprofit organization that brings together the colleges and universities of Mexico to promote improvements in teaching, research and student services. Founded in 1950, ANUIES comprises 149 public and private Mexican institutions of higher learning, including the most prestigious universities in the country. It represents 80 percent of all undergraduate and graduate students pursuing degrees in Mexico.

ANUIES identified The University of Texas at Austin as a partner for the conference because of its longstanding ties with Mexican universities and scholars. The university recently has renewed its commitment to strengthening these vital relationships through exchange initiatives and major research projects led by internationally recognized programs such as the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies and the Benson Latin American Collection.

For more information, contact: Christian Clarke Casarez, Office of Public Affairs, 512-471-4945; Gail Sanders, Mexican Center, Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, 512-232-2423.”*

The Texas Association of Mexican American Chambers of Commerce (TAMACC) and notable Texas State Agencies and Universities announced that they intend to sign an historic and unprecedented agreement worth potentially $100 Billion. In a public signing ceremony on June 24, 2008, at the Texas State Capitol, TAMACC Executive Board Members, key state legislators and university officials, will sign a Memorandum of Understanding for procurement opportunities.

“This is a historic moment for TAMACC and Texas state agencies and universities,” said Ms. Arcilia Acosta, TAMACC Chair. “It is historic because of the cooperation between TAMACC and these state entities, and the amount of money that will be available to qualified Texas D/M/W/BE firms. We hope that all qualified businesses will take advantage of this opportunity.”
The Memorandum of Understanding provides for an exchange of information concerning procurement and other opportunities with Texas agencies and universities totaling over $100 Billion. Texas universities will provide the procurement opportunities and information, while TAMACC provides qualified D/M/W/BE firms.

Mr. Frank Cortez, TAMACC President & CEO, noted that the business climate in Texas is right for this type agreement. “We have worked hard and are well positioned for our member firms to take advantage of these business opportunities. I think you’re going to see a lot of excited business owners at our state convention later this month as we roll-out additional information on this new development.”

Notable state agencies and universities participating in the Memorandum of Understanding include: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Texas Department of Transportation, Texas A&M University, Texas Health & Human Services Commission, Texas Tech University and The University of Texas at Austin.

About TAMACC:
TAMACC is a private non-profit corporation founded 32 years ago by a small group of Hispanic business persons interested in increasing business opportunities for themselves and other similar business owners. The association, with headquarters in Austin, Texas, acts as the organizational umbrella providing advocacy, technical support, programs, and services to the network of local Hispanic chambers.
Contact: Mauricio Navarro

469.733.8137
Navarro@raizinc.com
“

CONTACT:Robert Johnston, (202) 955-9450 ext. 313, rjohnston@communicationworks.com

Download full report PDF or this press release as a PDF

Emphasis on Academic Support, Use of Data in Decisionmaking, Revamped Community Outreach
Are Significant Factors in Success with Latino Students, Study Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 18) – As Latino representation in higher education continues to increase
across all states and institution types, Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs)—public or private nonprofit
degree-granting colleges with 25 percent or more Hispanic undergraduate enrollment—provide a valuable
laboratory to study practices that help improve Latino access, retention, and academic success.

A new report by the Washington, D.C.-based higher education policy group, Excelencia in Education,
reveals that it is no accident that some institutions have high Latino enrollments and degree production..
These campuses have worked deliberately to implement broad-scale changes in everything from
improving academic support and community relations to implementing new data systems that strengthen
decisionmaking and enable campus leaders, faculty, and staff to better monitor what is happening with
their Latino student population. This report and the case studies from which it is drawn were supported by
Lumina Foundation for Education.

“What we see across the most successful institutions are comprehensive efforts to improve the quality of
the academic experience and to meet student needs for a rapidly growing, non-traditional, and diverse
Latino population,” said Deborah Santiago, Vice President for Research and Policy for Excelencia in
Education and the author of the report. “The HSIs we examined made reinventing academic support for
Latino students and all students a top priority.”

“What was particularly impressive was how these student-rich and resource-poor institutions have
increased results for Latinos under increasingly tight economic constraints,” noted Sarita Brown,
president of Excelencia in Education. “Leaders of these institutions have made great strides to ensure
success while addressing diverse Latino enrollment patterns and pathways to degree completion. Their
strategies need to be studied more extensively and copied more expansively nationwide.”

The report, Modeling Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs): Campus Practices that Work for Latino
Students, focuses on 12 institutions—six community colleges and six public universities—in three states
that are among the nation’s leaders in Latino enrollment and degree completion. They include:

Emphasis on Academic Support
While institutions are involved in many areas that support their students’ success, the practices of all 12
HSIs emphasized academic support. Particularly powerful were strategies introduced to strengthen
developmental education, cohort support programs, and academic advising, the study says.

All the colleges offer courses that prepare students for college-level work, and some have created free
summer or winter immersion programs to prepare incoming and returning students for placement exams
in English, writing, and mathematics. All of the campuses have also invested considerable resources in
examining student data and designing interventions to strengthen freshmen student performance. For
example, El Camino College offers a First Year Experience program where student persistence and pass
rates were 10 to 30 percent higher for enrolled students than for a comparative group that did not
participate. South Texas College’s Beacon Advisement Program provides a case management approach
to student advising and has seen a fall-to-spring retention rate of 76 percent for students in the program
compared to 69 percent for a comparative group that did not participate.

Bolstering Community Outreach
The colleges studied have developed partnerships with local school districts and businesses to help
Latino students pursue college degrees. In addition, since so many Hispanic students begin their higher
education at a community college, community outreach also includes programs that facilitate transfers
from community college to public universities. One of the strongest models of collaboration between K-12
feeder schools, a community college, and a university partner is that of the El Paso Learning
Collaborative. El Paso Community College and the University of Texas at El Paso are working to align
their curriculum and to ease transitions so that students do not get lost, and for the past decade have
used resources from the National Science Foundation to provide summer programs and tuition support
for students transferring to programs in science, engineering, and mathematics.

Data Use
The institutions recognize the importance of using data to inform their support programs and institutional
decisionmaking. They have established a culture of evidence and have democratized data use, sharing
information on student success broadly with faculty, staff, students, and the community. By building
awareness about the challenges all students (and especially Latino and other minority students) face,
these institutions are able to gain insights from different subsets of their campuses to strengthen
programs and services. For example, CUNY-New York City College of Technology participated in
Building Engagement and Attainment of Minority Students (BEAMS) as a way to collect, disaggregate,
and use data to guide institutional practices and support for their students overall, and their minority
students in particular.

Recommendations for Other Institutions
Excelencia in Education’s observations of the 12 campuses, along with its work exploring institutional
practices and state policy options to bolster Latino student success in several states, has led to the
identification of several guiding practices that may be useful to other institutions experiencing growing
Latino student enrollment and seeking to serve nontraditional students:

• Create a culture of evidence at the institution to encourage the use of disaggregated data to better
  understand how Latino and other students are performing and to guide campus decisions and initiatives.
• Share data on Latino students with faculty, staff, and students at least once a year so that they
  know how students are performing and can become more engaged in institutional efforts.
• Use short-term measures of academic progress to guide improvements in curricula, instruction,
  and support services for Latino students. Using short-term measures of academic progress engages
  faculty in the scholarship of student success and focuses their efforts to improve their own students’
  achievement and their institutions’ capacity to serve students.
• Encourage and support the sharing of disaggregated student data between community colleges
  and baccalaureate-granting institutions to help establish better transfer pathways and to understand
  the barriers and facilitators for Latino college student success.
• Provide a holistic approach to serving Latino students within the institution. Incorporate
  leadership, research, academic programs, support services, and student life programs. Too often these
  programs and services operate independently and may be either duplicative or ineffective in reaching the
  students who need them the most to succeed.
• Partner with other educational organizations in the community to align educational resources.
  Engaging “feeder” high schools, community colleges, public universities, and community-based
  organizations already investing in students can increase Latino student preparation, access, and
  persistence to degree completion. Latino students tend to enroll in colleges in their own community, so
  there is a rich opportunity to align educational services in the K-16 pathway to better support students.
• Seek external sources to develop and test innovative practices while adding proven practices to
  the institutional budget. Many institutions with growing Latino enrollment face limited resources and a
  growing need to improve student achievement. Each of the institutions in this study actively sought and
  received additional federal, state, or private support to finance their student success activities. Once
  practices were developed, implemented, and evaluated, leaders added to their institutions’ budgets the
  ones that proved most successful.
• Apply lessons learned in improving services to Latinos to improve services for all students.
  Institutional practices that demonstrate effectiveness in serving Hispanics are likely to serve other
  students well and can be institutionalized to improve overall student success.
  Later this year, Excelencia in Education will release two more briefs that probe more deeply into HSI
  leadership strategies and success measures at these 12 institutions.
• Excelencia in Education aims to accelerate higher education success for Latino students by providing
  data-driven analysis of the educational status of Latino students, and by promoting education policies and
  institutional practices that support their academic achievement. A 501(c)(3) organization, Excelencia is
  building a network of results-oriented educators and policymakers adding value to their individual efforts
  with the momentum to address the U.S. economy’s need for a highly educated workforce.
• For more information, visit the organization’s Web site, www.EdExcelencia.org.

The University of Texas at El Paso has been awarded nearly $1 million from the National Science Foundation to help students earn doctorates in science, technology, engineering or mathematics in an effort to bolster the number of minorities with graduate degrees in these disciplines, according to a UTEP news release.

The $987,000 award will fund UTEP’s Bridge to the Doctorate program, which is part of The University of Texas System Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation. The award will support 12 students pursuing graduate degrees. Under the program, students will each receive a $30,000 stipend a year for two years plus funding to help cover tuition and related cost-of-education expenses.”*

The Hispanic Heritage Foundation (HHF) today honored U. S. Representative Rubén Hinojosa (D-TX) and ExxonMobil Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rex W. Tillerson, with the Inspira Award for their leadership in education for Latinos and for inspiring a new generation of Hispanic leaders in the United States.

According to Jose Antonio Tijerino, HHF president and CEO, the Inspira Award was created to honor Latino leaders who inspire youth in the public and private sector, and in the media. Last year’s Inspira Awardee was Actor Wilmer Valderrama. Rep. Hinojosa and Tillerson were honored on Capitol Hill during the 11th Annual Hispanic Heritage Youth Awards in Washington, D.C., which also recognized more than 20 outstanding students from the region. Washington, DC was the last of the 12 Regional Youth Awards ceremonies which have taken place and recognized more than 200 Hispanic high school seniors across America and provided more than $600,000 in educational grants.

“The Inspira Award recognizes those who have taken a leadership role in breaking barriers and creating opportunities for Hispanic youth,” said Tijerino. “We commend Rex Tillerson for his vision in encouraging and facilitating young Latinos to focus on science, technology, math and engineering through our Youth Awards and countless other efforts including the National Math and Science Initiative. We also applaud the lifetime of commitment of Rep. Hinojosa who is our champion from barrios to Capitol Hill on the issue of increasing educational opportunities for Latinos. They are truly an inspiration.”

Rep. Hinojosa has played an instrumental role in helping to improve educational and workforce-improvement programs for minorities and low-income families. In addition to the many education initiatives he has supported, Rep. Hinojosa founded a year-round program called HESTEC in 2002. Held at the University of Texas-Pan American, HESTEC emphasizes the importance of science literacy for Hispanics to educators, students and parents.

Rep. Hinojosa serves as chairman of the Education Task Force for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and has had tremendous success in vaulting Hispanic-Serving Institutions to a position of prominence. In 2007, Hinojosa helped pass the College Cost Reduction Act which will allow students to pursue higher educational goals by making college more affordable.

“I am extremely honored to be selected for this prestigious award,” said Rep. Hinojosa. “Education is the cornerstone of opportunity. It paves the way to improve technology, spreads new knowledge, advances innovation and ultimately shapes our future. It is vital that Hispanic-serving organizations, educational institutions and corporations help America stay competitive by advancing our educational system and capitalize upon the abundance of young and talented Hispanic minds.”

Tillerson and ExxonMobil have a long history of support for programs that improve opportunities for minorities and women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. These programs recognize the urgent need to encourage more Hispanic students and professionals to attain higher educational achievements and support initiatives that deliver high-quality educational programs, which prepare Hispanics for leadership in the workforce and in the classroom.

“To be recognized by the Hispanic Heritage Foundation is a great honor,” said Tillerson. “In today’s challenging fields such as technology and energy, our nation needs more brilliant minds than ever before, that’s why we support programs like the Hispanic Heritage Foundation’s Youth Awards’ Engineering and Mathematics category, which emphasize the importance of role models, including those who have succeeded in the math and science fields, while celebrating the unique Latino culture that brings added strength and dimension to our nation’s workforce.””*

The University of Texas Health Sciences Center partnered with Thomason Hospital in El Paso to implement the new Madrina-Padrino traffic safety program for Hispanics.

“A lot of people miss the traffic rules, especially in the rural areas. This may be because they don’t understand the law,” said Anna Red, injury-prevention technician at Thomason Hospital.

The project is aimed at educating Hispanics, particularly new immigrants, about traffic safety norms and laws, including matters related to drinking and impaired driving, safety belt use and child passenger safety, she said.”*